


Games We Play

by afinch



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Forgiveness, Post-Canon, Reconciliation, blink and you'll miss it crossover, rare pair 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 11:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11850513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/afinch
Summary: They were destined to be together. Not even a little attempted murder can keep them apart.





	Games We Play

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scribblemyname](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/gifts).



She has been in her cell for two weeks now. They are treating her kindly, far more kindly than she perhaps deserves. She is a Beifong, even if it's not officially, and likely won't be official. Plus, she scares them. _How could you just blaze ahead and attack Republic City?_ they ask her. _How could you fire at the man you love?_ they also ask. _What did you accomplish?_ they ask, when they are being mean. 

She pays them no mind. She has had time to do nothing but think. It hasn't quelled her conviction at all. She doesn't think anyone really thinks that it will. She is a Beifong, and change does not come easily to her. She isn't going to let go of the notion that her Kingdom doesn't deserve what happened. Her bitterness runs deep into her soul and only one person has dared to walk in that river with her.

He won't come without an apology, and she doesn't know how to give it. She is too prideful to say sorry. He is too prideful to forgive her. They dance on opposite sides of freedom, missing the heartbeat of the other. _I don't even know what you'd say to him, honestly_ they guards say. _How do you apologize for that?_ they say, as they shake their heads. _Honestly, what did you think was going to happen after?_ they ask, when they are being mean.

At this, she pays some mind. Not the apology, she won't give that, he may have been her lover, but he isn't owed. He should understand what was at stake. She'd have wanted him to do the same thing. But what would happen next? Destroy the Avatar? If it united her Kingdom, yes.

"Why does no one understand loyalty?" she inquired of the empty walls. "Has fidelity come so low? I was born in the wrong time."

"I don't think that."

She jumps, then jumps again. It's Baatar. She wants to be defensive. She wants to let him hug her and tell her everything will be all right. She wants to ask about the rest of the Beifongs. She wants to ask about the Avatar. She wants to know the scope of all the damage that is being done now that she's not out there.

She can't bring herself to humility. Arrogance wins out. "I'm not going to apologize."

Baatar's lips curl up into a slight smile, but it quickly disappears. He's not surprised by her comment. Almost as if he were expecting it. It makes him harder to read. He knows it and his swagger seems to grow. "I wouldn't expect you to," he smirks at her and suddenly he is the little boy she played with as a child, the little boy she fell in love with, the little boy who grew into a man that she abandoned for her Kingdom.

She might have shifted to softness, but the hardness is evident in her voice, in the accusation she throws, "You still asked for one."

He shrugs, "You did try to kill me. I think that's justified." He isn't caught off guard by her. He knows where she stands. He's always known where he stood with her. It's almost endearing. 

"Only in the temporary and emotional," she says back, but her lips are curling into a smile. This is banter. This is almost foreplay. "So you've come to …"

He shrugs again. "Call me weak, but I miss you."

Her heart jumps.

"The last thing I would call you is weak." She says it in an offhand tone, but she can tell he knows that she's hiding her insecurity underneath it. That she's trying to apologize without actually saying the words. He accepts this and relaxes against the wall. She's trying to gauge where she is with him, what his goal is out of finally coming to see her. She taps her fingers together, waiting.

He stares back at her, daring her to break the silence first.

She can't do it, she can't outlast him. Maybe before, but maybe a bit of her feels a little guilt, now that they're face to face without any outside stakes pressing on them. Maybe because her heart still hasn't calmed from him admitting he missed her. Maybe because she misses him too. 

She goes for bravado. "What are they saying? About me?"

He looks at his hands, frowns at a nail. Then he looks up at her quickly, "They're thinking of letting you go." He looks back down at his hands. 

She stares at him. He's toying with her. They both know it. It makes her heart beat faster and a warmth spread through her body. It's foreplay, again. "Oh?" she says, but she can't keep the edge out of her voice.

He smiles. He wins.

He shifts then, the game over, and takes a step closer to the cell, the tone conversational, as equals. "Something about the peace and keeping it. Moving on. Moving forward. I think that's what Korra wants and enough people are willing to listen to her to make it happen."

She wants to roll her eyes at Korra. But she also wants to be free. Still, they're not just going to let her go. She eyes Baatar, "I'm guessing some form of probation would be in account, to make sure I don't do it again."

"Ah yes, that," Baatar says. His voice is light and cheerful. "They've asked me."

She laughs. 

"I haven't said yes yet. I still have a few things to figure out."

"So you didn't come because you missed me?" She's trying hard not to sound disappointed, but she is.

He runs a hand through his hair, adjusts his glasses. He's nervous now. If they were still playing the game, she'd have in her claws in two moves. But she waits, breathes deep and easy, waits for him to collect himself. "No," he says, and his voice shifts. She holds her breath. "I was going to say no. I did say no. And then … do you remember when you broke the Minchin relief and blamed it on me?"

The game is back on. He gains confidence in these games, she feeds it to him, he feeds it to her, and eventually someone wins and they both win as long as someone wins. She can't help but laugh at the memory. The stupid Minchin relief was better off broken. "I remember you didn't say anything contrary to that," she tries. 

He nods, her play accepted. "Do you remember when the three sacks of clove rice went missing and you blamed me?"

She pauses. "That may have been a little mean."

"Yea, I didn't say anything then either. I understand fidelity too well."

And then, in a rush, she gets it. She gets all of it. All of why her plan never would have succeeded, even if she had. All of why there were those who had been willing to fight against her. All of those who came to Korra, who always sought her out, who asked the Avatar to fix things. All of the problems of the Earth Kingdom for two hundred years wrapped up in a single word. 

"I'm sorry," she says, and she means it. She doesn't know how to explain how she means it, but Baatar gets it. 

"I know," he says back, and for a moment, the universe echoes.


End file.
